Address: Whitlingham Ln, Norwich, NR14 8TR, United Kingdom
Rating: 4.6
based on 232 reviews.
Recreational Activities
Pros:
"Excellent place for an adventure. Be it on the water or on the land."
"The walking and cycling routes are well kept and easy to use for walkers/cyclists of all abilities."
"It's possible to hire a range of different watercraft."
"An excellent place to cycle, walk or let the kids let off steam."
"Adventure centre for children (pre booking probably required) large lakes offering open water swimming, sailing, paddle boarding, kayaks, canoes. Children's parties."
"For those who enjoy water sports and sailing, and why wouldn't you with the Broads on your doorstep, there is no better place to learn to sail than at Whitlingham Adventure."
"The Broad is good for learning water skills in boats/kayaks etc."
Cons:
"Swimming is forbidden. A very strange park."
"The activities centre has exclusive say on who can use the lake, so no private boat launching either."
"The only things which I would like to criticise is privatising a natural reserve to a private boat company. And they charge you for taking your own boat."
"Shame there's no longer swimming areas, but understandable given the history of accidents."
Cafe and Food Services
Pros:
"Nice cafe with good service for a coffee & snack or light meal if preferred. Super!"
"The hot food tasted fab."
"Cafe has a nice selection of hot foods and sandwiches and also ice creams and drinks."
"The cafe serves good hot food and drinks, and a selection of ice creams and cold drinks."
"The cafe is excellent with delicious food, cooked on site and well staffed who always make you feel welcome."
"Excellent coffee and 'home-made' style food at good value prices; the scones were huge!"
"Cafe food was lovely too!"
Cons:
"Cafe was pleasant but lady serving was very upset I found so many sandwiches in kiddies packs with mould on!"
"Does rather spoil things when for 2 coffees, 2 sausage rolls and a bit of cake costs almost £20."
"If you have dietary needs and wanted something quick to eat, the selection was a bit rubbish."
"The cafe staff are often a bit rude."
"The poor 2* review is in regards to the barn cafe. Overpriced and very disappointed with how they've dealt with the covid situation."
"Loved Whitlingham lake, so beautiful on a cold new years day, but on getting a warm drink in the cafe, one of the staff was so rude to myself the people I was with."
"Cafe very expensive, 3 sausage baps and three teas ....best part of £20 gone."
Parking and Accessibility
Pros:
"Reasonably priced car park £6 all day, café, picnic area and loo's on site and space for energetic people to run and play."
"Plenty of parking but you have to pay, it is reasonable, for example £4 for three hours."
"They have this new car park scheme where you only pay for the time you were there."
"Parking charge, 60p/hr, coin meters, discounts for full day, pay 'online' too."
"You can pay for parking online as well, so no need to even have cash on you."
"Ample parking throughout the estate."
"Plenty of pay and display parking available, either coin machines or online payments."
Cons:
"Despite having plenty of car parking, people decided to park on the road which causes much traffic chaos."
"Rubbish parking payment machine. The machine was steamed up inside so was unable to pay there."
"Car parking is expensive¬ all the machines work!"
"The actual county park is a great place to spend an hour or two however we didn't appreciate the high cost of the new parking system just introduced."
"The car parking is a bit expensive but if you are willing to walk 200 yards or so, you can park on the road....if there is space."
"Car parking costs 60p per half hour, and is zealously enforced by an external contractor."
"The carpark is not the easiest to pay for."
Nature and Scenery
Pros:
"Large lakes and walking trails round them."
"A beautiful place just on city outskirts."
"Lots of wildlife to see butterflies, geese, ducks and swans, and birds of prey like Red kites and Kestrels."
"Beautiful beautiful place. We are so so lucky to have this on the doorstep."
"Lovely place all year round. beautiful walk by the river."
"Beautiful countryside, wildlife and scenery."
"Beautiful nature."
Cons:
"Such a shame that we can still so much garbage everywhere between the bushes."
"The scenery is lovely with the exception of the overgrown stinging nettles which blocked the path in places."
"The thickets of nettles and the footpaths strewn with debris are also unpleasant."
"The place is full of toxic hogweed around the footpaths. Touching it can cause severe burns."
"Bring wellies and watch out for the ‘Whitlingham Broad Monster!’"
Facilities and Maintenance
Pros:
"The walking route has recently been re-gravelled so it's a less mucky experience."
"The Park has been upgraded since our last visit a year or two back. Now offers a fully surfaced path all the way round the lakes, so it's fully accessible for pushchairs, wheelchairs and presumably mobility scooters."
"Good walk around Whitlingham Broad with well made up paths suitable for push/wheel chairs."
Cons:
"A lovely little walk, it is unfortunate that some dog walkers do feel the need to clear up after their pets and this brings the whole experience down."
"Lots of unwanted dog mess some people just can't be bothered to clean up."
"If you bring a dog, be ready to carry your dog's poo (ideally in a bag) for most of your walk ... because there are very few doggy bins."
"The activity centre, path around the lake and picnic meadow badly need some time & money spent on maintenance."
"Paths are pushchair friendly, although rather bumpy."
"The main route is a compacted sand path round the lake which can get extremely muddy in places, especially in winter or after heavy rainfall."
"Lovely area for all to enjoy, shame the dog walkers have taken it over, dog pop not cleaned up in areas where your children play."